It`s not as bad as Korea, but this is no surprise. Things will get worse as the population of elderly people grows. Housing isn’t expensive like in the west, so that’s not the cause, but rather jobs are hard work and the yen is becoming less valuable. I have some hope in the さとり generation to break the toxic work cycle, but that won’t solve the affordability issues.
Essentially, nah. Everyone in Japan wants to increase birthrate and they’re trying things to reach that end but they’re not willing to take effective actions. Young people that work 12 hour days and never will be able to afford a house don’t want to have children - limiting overtime and overhauling the housing market negatively impact short term profits so they’re a bridge too far for politicians. They are trying a lot of other things but the actual solutions aren’t being seriously considered.
In Japan, that's not really seen so much as an issue (if you mean free-standing house). Flat-35 loans here are still extremely low interest and not expensive so it's certainly doable for a couple to buy a condo.
The 12-hour-days thing I think is also overblown in the current climate. Not to say it doesn't exist, but it's definitely not everywhere.
I don't know what you mean about the housing market; housing in Japan can be far more affordable than other places (I was in the market for a house here for a while and bought one recently). As I posted elsewhere, the government has been instituting more policies about overtime and such, but getting people to follow them due to societal norms and pressure is harder.
I do agree that the government isn't solving several of the actual problems (daycare access, for one), but I think we disagree on what some of those problems are.
The government’s efforts have been misguided because they won’t acknowledge the systemic issues: work culture and sexism. Instead they have pushed monetary programs and are confused as to why they’re not working.
The government has tried to do some things but, short of more affordable daycare and a complete shift in values/culture around work and gender roles, it's not going to happen. There is progress legally on the work hours front, but people will still just work off-the-clock overtime at a lot of places out of social pressure. Most of the job opportunities are also in the bigger cities where daycare is a lottery system with certain weighting based on parents' income, employment, etc. It's not enough.
I recently moved to the countryside, but I have a fully-remote job. My wife does as well (at least for the moment; we're not sure if it will last, but I can support us both). However, most people are chasing opportunity and it does not exist out here unless you want to be a farmer or factory worker which is not a glamorous life. As more people move out, tax revenue drops and services also go away. It creates a feedback loop. There needs to be serious effort to reverse it at the national level, but I don't see that happening at all.
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